SMALL BUSINESS BLOG -- SCOTT SUTTELL

St. Louis looks to take a page from Cleveland's entrepreneurial playbook

Blog Entry: June 13, 2013 9:09 AM | Author: SCOTT SUTTELL

Leaders in St. Louis' public and private sectors are taking a page from Cleveland's playbook by unveiling plans today to raise $100 million over five years to invest in and support local startups.

The Wall Street Journal says the effort “is the latest in a series of steps intended to revive an entrepreneurial culture that even local boosters acknowledge has faded over the generations.”

"St. Louis has a pretty deep history, and it's built on entrepreneurs and risk-takers," Judy Sindecuse, chief executive of Capital Innovators, an early-stage investment firm in the city, tells The Journal. "Now we need to redevelop that."

The Journal notes that in recent years, “cities and states across the country have established venture funds, tax incentives and other programs meant to encourage new businesses. Such efforts have been especially popular in cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit and Cleveland that have seen their industrial economies decline in recent decades.” (The story doesn't mention efforts including JumpStart Inc. and the Fund for Our Economic Future by name, but those are some of the Cleveland antecedents to the St. Louis effort.)

The focus on entrepreneurship “comes at a time when job growth has been slow and rates of business formation are falling nationally,” according to The Journal.

And economic “research suggests a possible connection between the two trends,” the paper says. It notes that Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, among others, has found that cities with high rates of entrepreneurship experience faster job growth.

But Mr. Glaser acknowledges that this isn't easy, and even cities' entrepreneurial success stories haven't necessarily been the result of government policies.

"It's not at all obvious that governments know how to promote entrepreneurship," Mr. Glaeser said. "The theory is sound. Whether or not they're actually going to be able to produce this is much less sure."

Big city, big expenses

An Ohio entrepreneur is among five people profiled in this CNNMoney.com feature about the sacrifices made to start a business.

Family time is a big casualty, the profilees say, as is financial security when getting the business started.

Genevieve Catalano, 33, of Dayton, says she made lifestyle sacrifices for the sake of her business, called TravelBlender, which crowdsources group travel.

The Ohio native always wanted to live in a really big city and in 2010 quit her marketing job to move to Chicago, which she loved. But as she began developing her business plan for TravelBlender, she realized Chicago was significantly more expensive for a startup than Ohio.

“My co-founder, who is also my boyfriend, still lived in Dayton,” Ms. Catalano says. “And I realized I had a choice: I could either live in Chicago and take a full-time job, or move in with him and focus on our business.”

She concludes this way:

“I cried the night I decided to move, and I cried again when the movers came. I still miss Chicago, but I think if I had walked away from TravelBlender then, it may never have happened. This was the best decision because it takes away the distractions and the money issues to some degree. It allows me to use my savings for my business, instead of for my living expenses.”

Ready for pineapple ale?

Beer lovers, your cup runneth over.

The Akron Beacon Journalreports that Rivertowne Brewing Co. of Pittsburgh will start distributing in the Cleveland market at the end of the month.

The Beacon Journal notes the brewery's Old Wylie's IPA, Grateful White and Hala Kahiki, an ale made with pineapple, will launch in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Medina, Portage and Summit counties around June 22.

The beer will be available in 12-ounce cans, along with a limited amount of draft, according to the story. It will be sold at select Heinen's locations and bottle shops.

Rivertowne has both a production brewery and a chain of restaurants around Pittsburgh.

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